5 Impressive Qualities of the HyperCar

We've got nothing against the filling stations that provide us with gasoline, diesel, biofuels and so forth. Nor against the many fine folks employed by these stations. But let's face it, interrupting our daily routine to get gas is kind of a hassle. And depending on the vehicle, it can get really expensive.

With a hypercar, you could spend less time waiting at the pump...or no time at all. Owning a plug-in electric vehicle that ran solely on batteries would mean that all you'd need is a power outlet. Everyone has one of those at home. The typical automobile sits idle 95 percent of the time, so even charging times of a few hours (like overnight) shouldn't terribly inconvenience owners [source: RenewGrid].

True hypercars are designed with an almost slavish devotion to reducing weight. The less a car weighs, the less energy it requires to move a given distance. The less energy it has to put out, the smaller (and lighter) its different components can be. So, while that big brake kit might look cool sitting beneath a set of 20-inch wheels on a tricked out regular car, on a hypercar you wouldn't need the oversized stoppers. Even on a really fast hypercar, the overall light vehicle weight would render monster brakes overkill.

Smaller, lighter components plus the use of light weight construction materials such as carbon fiber help give hypercars their phenomenal range. The remaining trick is to put all of these techniques and technologies into a system that allows for rapid, profitable mass production.